Art does heal: scientists say appreciating creative works can fight off disease

People visit the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New YorkPhoto: Getty

By Agency

4:15PM GMT 10 Feb 2015

The healing power of art and nature could be real after scientists discovered they boost your immune system.

Seeing such spine-tingling wonders as the Grand Canyon and Sistine Chapel or listening to Schubert’s Ave Maria can fight off disease, say scientists.

Great nature and art boost the immune system by lowering levels of chemicals that cause inflammation that can trigger diabetes, heart attacks and other illnesses.

Monet’s Water Lily Pond paintings

In two separate experiments on more than 200 young adults reported on a given day the extent to which they had experienced such positive emotions as amusement, awe, compassion, contentment, joy, love and pride.

Samples of gum and cheek tissue – known as oral mucosal transudate – taken that same day showed those who experienced more of these – in particular wonder and amazement – had the lowest levels of the cytokine Interleukin 6 which is a marker of inflammation.

Psychologist Dr Dacher Keltner, of California University in Berkeley, said: “That awe, wonder and beauty promote healthier levels of cytokines suggests the things we do to experience these emotions – a walk in nature, losing oneself in music, beholding art – has a direct influence upon health and life expectancy.”

Why are suicide rates among veterans higher than in the general US population, American author David Swanson asks, posing yet another question: why does the subject of war as a suicide-related motive never arise in official studies?

The problem of high suicide rates among war veterans is widely discussed in the United States: the latest study has found that the suicide rate among recent veterans is 50 percent higher than non-military civilians.Incredible as it may seem, official reports brush aside the idea that war itself has anything to do with the problem, American activist and author David Swanson notes.

“Remarkably, the subject of war, their role in war, their thoughts about the supposed justifications (or lack thereof) of a war, never come up,” Swanson wrote in his article for Information Clearing House.

The psychiatric studies and mass media reports are being focused on various “factors to blame” from “prior suicidality” to “poverty.” However, they tell us virtually nothing, according to Swanson.

“Perhaps their goal isn’t to tell us something factual so much as to shift the conversation away from why war causes murder and suicide, to the question of what was wrong with these soldiers before they enlisted,” the author remarked.

Nearly one in five suicides nationally is a veteran, 49,000 took own lives between 2005 and 2011

6:00 am, August 30, 2013 Updated: 12:19 pm, May 19, 2014

The mother of Kimberly Agar, Margy Agar, talks about her daughter’s struggles with symptoms related to a traumatic brain injury. Kimberly died by suicide in Germany in 2011. Margy Agar now spends her time at home, suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress, and speaking out against mental illness stigma in the military.

Video by Chase Cook, News21

Veterans are killing themselves at more than double the rate of the civilian population with about 49,000 taking their own lives between 2005 and 2011, according to data collected over eight months by News21.

Records from 48 states show the annual suicide rate among veterans is about 30 for every 100,000 of the population, compared to a civilian rate of about 14 per 100,000. The suicide rate among veterans increased an average 2.6 percent a year from 2005 to 2011, or more than double that of the 1.1 percent civilian rate, according to News21’s analysis of states’ mortality data.

Nearly one in every five suicides nationally is a veteran — 18 to 20 percent annually — compared with Census data that shows veterans make up about 10 percent of the U.S. adult population.

“Anytime a veteran who fought our enemies abroad or helped defend America from within our borders dies by their own hand, it’s completely unacceptable,” Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veteran’s Affairs, told an American Legion conference in Washington earlier this year. The suicide rate has remained consistently high, he said, adding that more work was needed to address gaps in veterans’ mental health care.

Report: Suicide rate spikes among young veterans

By Leo Shane III

Stars and Stripes

Published: January 9, 2014

WASHINGTON — The number of young veterans committing suicide jumped dramatically from 2009 to 2011, a worrying trend that Veterans Affairs officials hope can be reversed with more treatment and intervention.

New suicide data released by the department on Thursday showed that the rate of veterans suicide remained largely unchanged over that three-year period, the latest for which statistics are available. About 22 veterans a day take their own life, according to department estimates.

But while older veterans saw a slight decrease in suicides, male veterans under 30 saw a 44 percent increase in the rate of suicides. That’s roughly two young veterans a day who take their own life, most just a few years after leaving the service.

“Their rates are astronomically high and climbing,” said Jan Kemp, VA’s National Mental Health Director for Suicide Prevention. “That’s concerning to us.”

Mood-stabilizing drugs are purely antimanic agents, which are mainly for treating mania. However, natural mood stabilizers help the body metabolize brain chemicals which enhance mood, something drugs can never do due to specific metabolic pathways necessary to metabolize the chemical constituents. These ingredients not only improve mood, memory and cognition, but they do it without long-term side effects associated with medication. Here are 9 essential ingredients to look for in any supplement designed to boost your brain.

Just like any fine, multi-functional computer, your brain requires all its elements to perform correctly and fluidly. It is entirely electro-chemical in nature, and scientists are increasingly leaning to the conclusion that the roots of many psychiatric illnesses and mental health problems might be found in brain dysfunction. This just makes sense: a tiny piece of code can mess up a fine computer, but with the right code reinstalled, the computer resumes normal operation. The same can be said of the brain, its need for proper nutrition, and the concept of feeding the brain what it most needs, in order to restore and maintain the brain in its best possible condition.

Investigators are examining children with ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and adults with bipolar disorder and depression, along with a variety of other psychiatric conditions and types of cognitive impairments. Conditions such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), MS (multiple sclerosis), MD (muscular dystrophy), all inhibit cell function and hinder the brain’s responsiveness to stimuli.

Brain energy metabolism is very important to normal brain function, so it’s no surprise to find that this factor is reduced in Alzheimer’s victims and other dementia patients: the greater the loss of energy, the more severe the dementia.

Ensuring optimal intake of key nutrients such as vitamins and antioxidants throughout one’s lifetime may be an important wellness strategy to help prevent brain diseases and prevent the decline in our cognitive abilities. Approximately 6-8% of all persons aged 65+ have developed Alzheimer’s disease, and the prevalence of this disease is increasing. The current research lends further support to the use of antioxidants and a vitamin enriched daily dietary supplement program to help support the brain function as we age.
9 Essential Mood, Memory, and Cognitive Enhancers That Boost Brain Energy Metabolism

1. ACETYL-L-CARNITINE:
In a 2010 Tokyo study, the aged rats were supplemented with Acetyl-L-Carnitine to determine its effects on memory, learning capacity, and brain synaptic functions. For 3 months, 344 rats were given Acetyl-L-Carnitine (100 mg/kg bodyweight). At the end of the study, the scientsists concluded that Acetyl-L-Carnitine increases synaptic neurotransmission in the brain and consequently improves learning capacity in aging rats.

2. R-ALPHA LIPOIC ACID (R-ALA):R-ALA reduces cataract formation, and reduces oxidative stress in the heart muscle while raising levels in the heart and liver. It also lowers glucose levels by increasing insulin metabolism and decreases numbness in Diabetics, increases energy levels within the brain cells, can decrease LDL cholesterol and remove protein oxidation for a healthy heart, and inhibits free radicals more effectively than vitamin E.

3. L-THREONINE:
Threonine is an essential amino acid and not synthesized by humans. Threonine supports cardiovascular, liver, central nervous, and immune system function. Threonine combines with the amino acids aspartic acid and methionine to help liver digest fats and fatty acids. L-threonine has been tried for ALS because, like BCAAs, it affects glutamate metabolism. Open trials and one double-blind study have shown some short-term improvement in symptoms. The research also demonstrated that symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), another disease that affects nerve and muscle, are alleviated with threonine treatment. Threonine is an immunostimulant, which promotes the growth of thymus gland.

4. L-TYROSINE:L-Tyrosine has been proposed as a treatment for various conditions in which mental function is impaired or slowed down, such as fatigue and depression. It has also been tried for attention deficit disorder (ADD). Preliminary evidence, including small, double-blind trials, suggests that tyrosine supplements may help fight fatigue and improve memory and mental function in people who are deprived of sleep or exposed to other forms of stress.

5. PANTOTHENIC ACID:
Pantothenic acid is used in the manufacture of hormones, red blood cells, and acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter (a signal carrier between nerve cells).

6. CO ENZYME-Q-10:
“C0-Q-10” prevents oxidation of the cell membrane and mitochondria within the cell, thereby preserving youthful neurological function, and protecting the capillaries from becoming fragile; it also enhances cerebral oxygenation.

7. METHYLCOBALAMIN:
The neurologically-active form of vitamin B-12, Methylcobalamin is effective in slowing the progression of untreatable diseases and neurological aging. Japan’s scientific literature reveals 334 published studies on methylcobalamin; the studies consider the treatment beneficial for any neurological disease. For example, in patients with MS their cynocobalamin is destroyed, and methylcobalamin attempts to reverse this process.

8. DIMETHYLGLYCINE (DMG):
DMG is a dietary supplement which supports the immune, circulatory, and cardiovascular systems. It is useful for controlling epileptic seizures, and for improving neurological functions, as well as muscle recovery and endurance. DMG is a nutrient that is found in the cells of both plants and animals. The human body produces DMG in very small amounts. Supplementing the diet with higher levels of DMG greatly improves the nutritional environment of the cell. DMG has been found effective in supporting immune system function and better utilization of oxygen at the cellular level.

9. GAMMA AMINO BUTYRIC ACID (GABA):
The ability of the limbic system and the rest of the brain to communicate in an orderly manner depends critically on inhibition. GABA inhibits the cells from firing, diminishing the anxiety-related messages from reaching the cortex. GABA, glutamine and glycine are vital for energy and the smooth running of the brain functions. B6 (pyridoxine) is GABA’s most important partner.

This formulation is a vast improvement over any other for its bioavailability with added the patented Sigma-Tau’s Acetyl-L-Carnitine with advanced delivery, complete with clinical studies showing the effectiveness of this material opposed to other forms of Acetyl-L-Carnitine.

Instead of using DL-Alpha Lipoic Acid, instead the Life Choice Neurotransmitter Support uses R-Alpha Lipoic acid. This formulation matches the same two principle ingredients used in the clinical Study of Berkley School of Medicine and from that stage Life Choice created an even more advanced delivery with the unknown amino acid L-Threonine, not to be confused with L-Theonine.

Through research and investigation, Life Choice have further advanced the relationships between neurological biochemistry and bioavailability for an ingestible supplement.

This isn’t just any natural health supplement. Neurotransmitter Support’s precision formulation acts to improve brain energy metabolism, and with it, brain function. It’s one of the most advanced formulas I’ve seen on the market that synergistically uses this 9 ingredients to effectively change the way the brain responds to the body and its environment.

Deaths tied to VA hospital’s secret list

(CNN)

The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.

Internal e-mails obtained by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew about the practice and even defended it.

Dr. Sam Foote just retired after spending 24 years with the VA system in Phoenix. The veteran doctor told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Phoenix VA works off two lists for patient appointments:

There’s an “official” list that’s shared with officials in Washington and shows the VA has been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham list. And then there’s the real list that’s hidden from outsiders, where wait times can last more than a year.

Deliberate scheme, shredded evidence

“The scheme was deliberately put in place to avoid the VA’s own internal rules,” said Foote in Phoenix. “They developed the secret waiting list,” said Foote, a respected local physician.

The VA requires its hospitals to provide care to patients in a timely manner, typically within 14 to 30 days, Foote said.

According to Foote, the elaborate scheme in Phoenix involved shredding evidence to hide the long list of veterans waiting for appointments and care. Officials at the VA, Foote says, instructed their staff to not actually make doctor’s appointments for veterans within the computer system.

Instead, Foote says, when a veteran comes in seeking an appointment, “they enter information into the computer and do a screen capture hard copy printout. They then do not save what was put into the computer so there’s no record that you were ever here,” he said.

According to Foote, the information was gathered on the secret electronic list and then the information that would show when veterans first began waiting for an appointment was actually destroyed.

“That hard copy, if you will, that has the patient demographic information is then taken and placed onto a secret electronic waiting list, and then the data that is on that paper is shredded,” Foote said.

“So the only record that you have ever been there requesting care was on that secret list,” he said. “And they wouldn’t take you off that secret list until you had an appointment time that was less than 14 days so it would give the appearance that they were improving greatly the waiting times, when in fact they were not.”

I feel very sorry for the people who work at the Phoenix VA. They all wish they could leave ’cause they know what they’re doing is wrong.
Dr. Sam Foote

Foote estimates right now the number of veterans waiting on the “secret list” to see a primary care physician is somewhere between 1,400 and 1,600.

Doctor: It’s a ‘frustrated’ staff

“I feel very sorry for the people who work at the Phoenix VA,” said Foote. “They’re all frustrated. They’re all upset. They all wish they could leave ’cause they know what they’re doing is wrong.

“But they have families, they have mortgages and if they speak out or say anything to anybody about it, they will be fired and they know that.”

Several other high-level VA staff confirmed Foote’s description to CNN and confirmed this is exactly how the secret list works in Phoenix.

Foote says the Phoenix wait times reported back to Washington were entirely fictitious. “So then when they did that, they would report to Washington, ‘Oh yeah. We’re makin’ our appointments within — within 10 days, within the 14-day frame,’ when in reality it had been six, nine, in some cases 21 months,” he said.

Thomas Breen was so proud of his time in the Navy that he wanted to be treated only at a VA facility, his family says.

In the case of 71-year-old Navy veteran Thomas Breen, the wait on the secret list ended much sooner.

“We had noticed that he started to have bleeding in his urine,” said Teddy Barnes-Breen, his son. “So I was like, ‘Listen, we gotta get you to the doctor.’ “

Teddy says his Brooklyn-raised father was so proud of his military service that he would go nowhere but the VA for treatment. On September 28, 2013, with blood in his urine and a history of cancer, Teddy and his wife, Sally, rushed his father to the Phoenix VA emergency room, where he was examined and sent home to wait.

“They wrote on his chart that it was urgent,” said Sally, her father-in-law’s main caretaker. The family has obtained the chart from the VA that clearly states the “urgency” as “one week” for Breen to see a primary care doctor or at least a urologist, for the concerns about the blood in the urine.

“And they sent him home,” says Teddy, incredulously.

Sally and Teddy say Thomas Breen was given an appointment with a rheumatologist to look at his prosthetic leg but was given no appointment for the main reason he went in.

Lives ‘left in ruin’ by rising tide of depression drugs

More people are being put on the pills but some experts are now warning they do more harm than good. Julia Llewellyn Smith reports

Jo Thompson ended up in hospital on anti-anxiety pills, and wanted to die when she stopped them Photo: Geoff Pugh/Telegraph

By Julia Llewellyn Smith

7:00AM BST 27 Apr 2014

Twenty years ago, Henry was living a fulfilled life. A happily married father from the Home Counties, his sales career was going well, he had a wide social circle and played football and golf regularly. “I was a conservative, head-down, career-minded person who enjoyed my life,” he says.

But in 1995, a bout of flu left Henry, then 31, exhausted and lethargic. He visited his GP, who told him he was depressed, and prescribed the world’s most popular antidepressant, Prozac. “Everything appeared completely benign — he said depression was a common complaint, the drugs would fix it and then I’d stop taking them.”

More than a decade later, Henry was far from cured and still taking antidepressants. “None of the drugs I was prescribed made me feel better, and most made me considerably worse. But every time I stopped them, the symptoms of what I thought was depression — but now know were of withdrawal — returned even more strongly, so I went back to the pills.”

By 2009, he was so unwell that he had to give up work. Finally, suspecting the drugs were the cause of his problems, he quit them, only to enter a new hell.

“It was torture. I thought I was going to die, and I didn’t care. For two years, I was in severe physical pain and so weak I lay all day on the sofa. My cognition was severely affected, I was dizzy, with blurred vision, I couldn’t read a bedtime story to my son and couldn’t remember things that had happened just a few seconds previously.”

Henry — who does not want to reveal his last name because of pending legal action against the drugs manufacturers — is just one of an estimated four million people in Britain taking antidepressants, a number that is rising sharply.

Last year, 53 million prescriptions were issued for antidepressants in England alone, nearly double the number prescribed a decade ago, and a six per cent increase in the past year. According to recent research, one in three British women and one in 10 men now take the medication, including popular brands such as Prozac, Cipramil and Seroxat, at some point in their lives.

But a growing number of experts now believe depression is vastly overdiagnosed and the drugs can cause far more harm than good.

This week, a new organisation, the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry (CEP), whose members include psychiatrists, academics and withdrawal charities, is launching, to educate the public about the risks of antidepressants. A keynote speech will be given by Prof Peter Gøtzsche, co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international, non-profit organisation that examines vast amounts of medical data to help doctors and patients reach informed conclusions about health.

DESCRIPTION: Whole fruits and vegetables were compared to both antioxidant pills as well as supplements containing fruits and vegetable extracts for their ability to treat seasonal allergies, improve lung function, and control asthma.

…..

Hepatitis C treatment cures over 90 percent of patients who also have cirrhosis

Date:

April 12, 2014

Source:

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Summary:

Twelve weeks of an investigational oral therapy cured hepatitis C infection in more than 90 percent of patients with liver cirrhosis and was well tolerated by these patients, according to a new study.

Twelve weeks of an investigational oral therapy cured hepatitis C infection in more than 90 percent of patients with liver cirrhosis and was well tolerated by these patients, according to an international study that included researchers from UT Medicine San Antonio and the Texas Liver Institute. Historically, hepatitis C cure rates in patients with cirrhosis (liver scarring) have been lower than 50 percent and the treatment was not safe for many of these patients.

Hepatitis C virus is the No. 1 driver of cirrhosis, liver transplants and liver cancer in the United States, noted Fred Poordad, M.D., lead author on the study, which was released Saturday by The New England Journal of Medicine in conjunction with Dr. Poordad’s presentation of the data at the International Liver Congress in London. UT Medicine is the clinical practice of the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where Dr. Poordad is a professor of medicine. He is vice president of the Texas Liver Institute in San Antonio.

Interferon previously was the only agent to show effectiveness against hepatitis C, but patients often relapsed and the therapy caused multiple side effects. The new regimen is interferon-free and consists of several agents — ABT-450/ritonavir, ombitasvir, dasabuvir and ribavirin. Twelve weeks after the last dose, no hepatitis C virus was detected in the bloodstream of 91.8 percent of patients who took the pills for 12 weeks. Among patients treated for 24 weeks, 95.9 percent were virus-free 12 weeks after the end of therapy.

Treatment options for the 170 million people worldwide with chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) are evolving rapidly, although the available regimens often come with significant side effects. Two multi-center clinical trials show promise for a new option that could help lead to both an increase in patients cured with a much more simple and tolerable all oral therapy.

Treatment options for the 170 million people worldwide with chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) are evolving rapidly, although the available regimens often come with significant side effects. Two multi-center clinical trials led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center show promise for a new option that could help lead to both an increase in patients cured with a much more simple and tolerable all oral therapy.

A new 12-week single tablet regimen of ledipasvir and sofosbuvir have proven to be highly effective in treating a broad range of patients with HCV genotype 1, a form of the virus found in up to 75 percent of infections, according to results unveiled today at the European Association for the Study of the Liver and published simultaneously online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Between 94 percent and 99 percent of patients were cured of hepatitis C and results were similar in patients who have never been treated and for those who had previously been treated with a combination of peginterferon and ribavirin, the current course that carries sometimes significant side effects.

“Eliminating interferon and ribavirin from treatment regimens is expected to reduce the incidence and severity of adverse events, to simplify the treatment of patients with HCV infection and to provide an option for patients who are ineligible for the current interferon-based treatments,” said Nezam Afdhal, MD, the senior author of the studies, Director of the Liver Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver and which can lead to scarring and cirrhosis and is transmitted primarily through blood transfusions (prior to 1991), intravenous drug use, poorly sterilized medical equipment and sexual transmission.. After exposure 80 percent of patients develop a chronic hepatitis which can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer and hepatitis C is the most common cause for liver transplantation in the US.

Prior treatments have been with interferon which is an injectable cytokine released in response to viral infections. Interferon is combined with other antiviral agents and needs to be used for up to 48 weeks to cure hepatitis C. but is associated with number of side effects, including influenza-like symptoms depression and anemia. Many patients are ineligible for these interferon-based therapies.

“The real advances seen in the Ion trials is that the sofosbuvir-ledipasvir combination tablet enables us to treat almost all genotype 1 patients with a short duration of 8-12 weeks of treatment expanding the treatment pool and increasing the overall cure rate,” said Afdhal.

Recent recommendations by the CDC and endorsed by the USPHS Task force have recommended screening of baby boomers (persons born between 1945 and 1965) for hepatitis C since up to3 percent may have silent infection without symptoms.
“Screening for HCV needs to be associated with a safe and effective treatment for these “baby boomers” with newly identified HCV and the ION trials clearly give an exciting new option for these patients” stated Afdhal.

Vets, Docs Worry Fort Hood Shootings Will Deepen PTSD Stigma

By Bill Briggs

The word “PTSD” had barely left the mouth of Fort Hood’s commander late Wednesday when, across the nation, many veterans with those symptoms and doctors who treat the malady understood they faced a renewed battle: a resurgence of the stigma that comes with that diagnosis.

The Fort Hood tragedy –- 16 wounded and four killed, including identified shooter Ivan Lopez, a soldier being evaluated for PTSD –- is precisely the type of event that makes combat veterans cringe. Many worry they’ll be further mislabeled as dangerous time bombs, as the next to snap, and that post-traumatic stress will again be misrepresented and misunderstood as a condition that sparks public, violent outbursts.

“That is not what post-traumatic stress is or what it does,” said Ingrid Herrera-Yee, a clinical psychologist in the Washington, D.C. area who treats veterans diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues as well as their family members and civilians. Her husband, Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Ian Yee, spent three combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Yes, there is anger and irritability (associated with PTSD), but it’s usually internalized. You’re more likely to see it as someone who is withdrawn, anxious and numb, who’s lost interest in life. Some veterans explain it to me this way: ‘The last thing you want is to go out and lash out,” said Herrera-Yee, adding: “Just like any victims of a trauma –- rape or domestic violence -– they can become fearful of their surroundings, but they’re not going to react angrily toward their surroundings. For them, it’s all about avoidance.”

“You’re more likely to see it as someone who is withdrawn, anxious and numb, who’s lost interest in life. Some veterans explain it to me this way: ‘The last thing you want is to go out and lash out.'”

For years, Pentagon brass and branch commanders have urged troops and veterans to seek mental-health help if they feel the need, while repeating the message that, if they do see a doctor, they will not be viewed as weak but as strong. That campaign seems to have finally dented the macho-military mantra that every soldier can handle his or her own business. Many veterans are turning to doctors to begin addressing post-service anxiety issues, often fueled by repeated or long deployments.

Mental health advocates strongly disapprove of forced treatment bill

There is a little known bill in the works which would force people in crisis into forced psychiatric treatment. Mad in America reported on March 28, 2014 that mental health advocates are urging protest against a forced treatment addition to a new Medicare bill. Many national mental health and disability advocacy groups have joined together to urge people to contact their senators in order to protest a section of a bill which was rushed through the House of Representatives by voice vote this week. This bill, Section 224 of HR4302, is up for a vote in the Senate on Monday.

Raymond Bridge, public policy director of the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery has said: “In its rush to fix a problem with Medicare, the House passed a bill including a highly controversial program, involuntary outpatient commitment, with no debate and no roll call vote.” It appears to Bridge that the Senate may pass a version of the House bill which includes this troublesome provision on Monday. Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D. has commented about this bill, saying: “It would bring America back to the dark ages before de-institutionalization, when people with mental health conditions languished in institutions, sometimes for life.”

…..

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The bill rushed through the House of Representatives by voice vote yesterday to patch Medicare regulations includes a highly controversial provision that has nothing to do with Medicare, and that would subject people in crisis to forced treatment. Studies have shown that such force causes trauma and drives people away from treatment, mental health advocates warned.

Today, an array of national mental health and disability advocacy groups joined together to decry this provision, which they view as a regressive attack on hundreds of thousands of Americans with serious mental health conditions.

“In its rush to fix a problem with Medicare, the House passed a bill including a highly controversial program, involuntary outpatient commitment, with no debate and no roll call vote,” said Raymond Bridge, public policy director of the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR), a coalition of 32 statewide organizations and others representing individuals with mental illnesses. “And it seems that the Senate may pass a version of the House bill including this troubling provision on Monday,” Bridge added.

The 123-page Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, H.R. 4302, includes a four-year, $60 million grant program (Sec. 224) to expand involuntary outpatient commitment (IOC) – also called Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) – in states that have laws authorizing IOC. The laws allow courts to mandate someone with a serious mental illness to follow a specific treatment plan, usually requiring medication. The facts show that involuntary outpatient commitment is not effective, involves high costs with minimal returns, is not likely to reduce violence, and that there are more effective alternatives.

“This legislation would eliminate initiatives that use evidence-based, voluntary, peer-run services and family supports to help people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses to recover,” said Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist and an NCMHR founder. “It would bring America back to the dark ages before de-institutionalization, when people with mental health conditions languished in institutions, sometimes for life.”

The provisions of H.R. 3717 would exchange low-cost, community-based services with good outcomes for high-cost yet ineffective interventions, according to the NCMHR; the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), the non-profit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals with disabilities; and the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), which advances independent living and the rights of people with disabilities through consumer-driven advocacy.

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